Yet another media blasting pressure pot post.

[barracuda816]

Afternoon ladies and gents.

I have another classic car resto coming up and there is a lot of surface rust in very hard to reach with conventional means areas, like the gutters. So I am contemplating getting a cheap bast pot. I haven't really felt the need for one until now so im thinking it will mostly sit in storage until the very rare occasion its needed.

I have done a search on the forum concerning the above, and found the be general answer is they are all the same on the cheap end and the best thing to do is upgrade the media metering valve and the nozzle. But I have two main questions;

1) How usable are they out of the gate, is it just a case of the nozzle will wear out really fast and the metering valve is just off or on? So can I use it as is then upgrade or does it need the upgrades to be usable?

and

2) looking at the different capacities I can't see how to calculate an approx run time before re filling with media. I not need to do a whole car more just get in the awkward spots. But I don't want to be stopping to refill every 5mins.
Does anyone have a small pot that could tell me how much blasting time to expect?

I only have two 3hp compressors linked together so I won't be running a large nozzle probably around the 2mm max 3mm size.

And for media I am thinking since i'm not doing panels themselves non silica sand would be the best option?

Thanks for all your input.

 

[brightspark]

wouldnt bother getting the bigger one the smaller one will take a 25kg bag of media and lasts a fair while . a couple of 3hp pumps will well run a 3.0mm nozzle at 90 psi . cut the existing afair of the end of the blast pipe and fit a strait through nozzle and operate the pot from the air input valve next to the water seperator . the ball valve for the media is a bit hit and miss and you have to prat on regulating it when it stops flowing but thats about it